Military History

An excerpt from our Second Saturday: Run Silent, Run Deep, featuring takeaways on leadership in the Silent Service from the novel. View our full Second Saturday Webinar HERE. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Probably of interest for most of us (Joint UK/Australia development of missile weapons and space systems, as Black Knight, in Woomera and similar 1946-1980), free 596 pages download!: https://www.dst.defence.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/documents/Fire Across the Desert HR.pdf

Reviewed by CDR Jeffrey Holdsworth, USN Competition occurs within the context of international relationships, and careful examination of how those relationships form and exert influence at all levels of society is valuable to serious foreign policy and national security professionals. In his third published book, The Anglo-Soviet Alliance: Comrades & Allies During WW2, career British social worker and Soviet historian Colin Turbett explores relationships amidst ideological competition before, during, and following conflict through detailed vignettes. Turbett presents a successful and balanced examination of the relationships influencing the British and the Sov…

Naval Historian Paul Stillwell tells the story of how Duke Snider earned extra income during World War II. View our full Second Saturday Webinar HERE. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Reviewed by Jon Mikolashek, Ph.D. When people think of World War II most recall black and white photos of momentous occasions or soldiers running into enemy fire. In Victory: World War II in Real Time, editor Alan Axelrod brings many of these images together in a collection of Associated Press (AP) photos and headlines from across the United States between 1939 and 1945. Axelrod is an established author with more than 150 published works spanning multiple decades, disciplines, and topics. David Eisenhower, the grandson of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, writes a brief foreword that perfectly encapsulates the need for works like Victory. While the wartime leaders have lo…

In June, 2005 the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Vern Clark, released an administrative message to the fleet. “Effective immediately, we will refer to all of our sailors, active and reserve, as United States Navy sailors. This shared title will strengthen the bond between our active and Reserve components, and enhance the culture of integration needed to most effectively deliver decisive power from the sea.” View our full Second Saturday Webinar HERE. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Reviewed by Lt. Col. Andrew D. Dausman, USMCR In Unsinkable, James Sullivan delivers a comprehensive account of USS Plunkett during World War II (WWII). A Gleaves-class destroyer, Plunkett saw action in North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Omaha Beach, and the Allied invasion of Southern France. According to Sullivan, Plunkett is one of the few, perhaps only, warships to fight in every Navy-supported European invasion during WWII. While Sullivan is a seasoned writer for the New York Times and National Geographic Travel Magazine, Unsinkable is his first book. Sullivan tells Plunkett’s story through the wartime experiences of the ship’s crew members, one of which …

ADM Robert J. Natter describes sending the USS George Washington (CVN-73) to New York in the aftermath of 9/11 and the confidence and comfort it provided New York city’s citizens in a great time of trial and sadness. View our full Second Saturday Webinar HERE. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Reviewed by James P. Rife, M.A. Amateur historian, ship modeler, and rocket scientist Mark Lardas packs much into Osprey’s latest addition to its excellent ‘Campaign Series’ of reference books, The Glorious First of June 1794. This was the British name for the first major fleet action against the French Navy since the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782. In only ninety-six pages, Lardas concisely recounts the events of that campaign, the key commanders on both sides, the three-day battle itself, and its aftermath, while placing everything within the larger context of the French Revolution. This is no small feat considering the complexity of the overall subject matter,…

Historian Dr. Craig Symonds breaks down the different personalities of fictional captains Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey. View our full Second Saturday Webinar HERE. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

This month, we’re joined by historians Paul Stillwell, and Trent Hone to discuss the Battle of Surigao Strait. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Reviewed by Diana L. Ahmad, Ph.D. Jon Diamond, a physician and author of over a dozen books about World War II, has produced yet another photo collection about the battle to beat the Japanese in the Pacific. While the United States won the two-month long campaign in the Palau Islands, the conflict proved deadly to both the Americans and the Japanese. The benefits of this campaign remain questionable. Using extensive photographic collections from the National Archives and the United States Army Military History Institute (sometimes referred to as the Army Heritage and Education Center), Diamond illustrates the Pacific road to Palau starting in the 1930s. The book inclu…

Reviewed by Major Chris Ketcherside, USMC (Ret.) Thomas McKelvey Cleaver’s Holding the Line focuses on carrier-based U.S. naval aviation operations during the Korean conflict. He also touches on related subjects including events on the ground, U.S. Air Force operations and British naval aviation operations. His primary argument seems to be that naval aviation excelled at tactical operations and ground support but was ill suited to the mission of strategic interdiction for which it was often employed. Holding the Line is divided into 19 relatively short chapters which are organized primarily chronologically but also by subject. For example, Cleaver mentions night f…

Reviewed by Charles C. Kolb, PhD The sinking of HMT Lancastria on June 17, 1940, is an intriguing chapter of naval history in World War II primarily because of the tragic loss of life and how much information pertaining to the event was—and still is—classified. The numbers of passengers aboard, survivors, and casualties are unreported or vary wildly. Stephen Wynn, a retired police constable with 30 years’ service in Essex, began writing prior to his retirement. Wynn has previously authored and co-authored books for the “Your Towns & Cities in the Great War” series published by Pen & Sword in addition to half a dozen non-fiction books and “crime thrillers.”…

Reviewed by Dr. Diana Ahmad A US Navy veteran, author, editor, and former director of the Naval Historical Center, William S. Dudley has written a wonderful volume that analyzes the administration and logistics of the Navy during the War of 1812. Dudley focuses on the problems surrounding ship building, provisioning, recruitment, transportation of goods and men, and medical care during a time of poor financial support from the US Congress. In fifteen chapters, Dudley discusses the various battles; yet more importantly, he explains the personal relationships between members of the government and their associations with those who provided the equipment to the Navy. …

Reviewed by David F. Winkler, PhD One of the pleasures of being the staff historian at the Naval Historical Foundation is to look over the numerous books that arrive at 1306 Dahlgren, sent by publishers and authors with an aim to get some publicity through a book review in our “Naval History Book Review” section in our weekly Thursday Tidings. While most books will go under the critical eye of one of our able member-reviewers, I retain the prerogative to pull aside a book for personal reading – especially when the opportune time of a summer vacation presents itself. With all my work-related readings being non-fiction, historical fiction offers a certain appeal. As suc…

Guadalcanal Quintet (Naval History, October 2021) "From August to November 1942, a series of hard-fought nighttime naval battles punctuated the struggle for the crucial foothold in the Solomon Islands."

We are joined in our discussion, by Admiral Vern Clark, Admiral Robert Natter, Admiral William Fallon, and Rear Admiral Samuel Cox to address the Navy’s response in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The post Blog first appeared on Naval Historical Foundation. View the full article

Reviewed by Master Chief David Mattingly, USN (Ret.) One need only mention 9/11 and most people will recall the confusion that spilled from televisions and radios throughout the country. September 11, 2001 was a beautiful day with clear skies in New York when the world turned upside down as two planes careened into the World Trade Center towers. New York City streets were soon a melee of victims, survivors, and first responders who quickly clogged the streets around the World Trade Center. Authorities soon saw New York Harbor as a means to evacuate the injured and other survivors from Lower Manhattan. Bestselling author and documentary producer L. Douglas Keeney h…

Reviewed by LCDR Bryan Hayes, USN (Ret.) In the Claws of the Tomcat is a thoroughly researched and detailed book about U.S. Navy F-14 operations in the Middle East, including Operation Desert Storm and other less-known encounters between U.S. aircraft and Iranian and Iraqi adversaries. I highly recommend it to serious students of naval aviation as well as aircraft modelers interested in accurately depicting the F-14. This book’s greatest strength is its reliance on interviews with aviators who flew the missions described in its pages. The interview subjects include not only U.S. Navy pilots and radar intercept officers (RIOs), but also Iranian and Iraqi airmen. …